It seems clear that Manchester is at least two cities in one: The gritty area downtown and the rebuilt/gentrified area around the old docks in Salford. I spent some time in and around Piccadilly Gardens today, and it was more than a little edgy. The green area was crowded, because the sun was out, but […]

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The UAE Olympic soccer team’s Summer 2012 European Tour continues, jumping from Austria, via Munich, to the English city of Manchester where, I am happy to report, it is not raining. (Turns out that Manchester actually has fewer rainy days, and gets less rain than is typical in England. But last I had heard, rain […]

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  What a great discovery. Austria. Who knew? That is a final picture of the Grandhotel Lienz, taken from the other side of the Isel River. Quite a spot. The hotel, the river, the city. But I liked just about all of what I saw in this country.

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Saw the UAE’s final friendly match tonight, ahead of their going to England for the London 2012 Olympics, and wrote about it for The National. The UAE football team reaching the Olympics … a very big deal. Not that anyone with much experience following soccer likes their chances, especially in a group with Uruguay, Great […]

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When I got to Lienz, in the southwest of Austria, I had no real mental image of what it would look like. Mountains, probably, sure. Maybe a wide valley. Maybe something more like a plain. Possibly denuded hills, from logging. Maybe a dump or a belching factory. But I got far better than that. I […]

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I covered the UAE Olympic team’s friendly with a group of Hungary kids last night, and the second half was remarkable, to us desert dwellers, for one aspect: It rained throughout. Sometimes it poured. A fact to keep in mind:

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I am in the city of Lienz, Austria. Not Linz, Austria, which is a fairly big town near the German border. This is Lienz, a skiing village of about 10,000 people here in the Tyrol region of the country. Just north of the border with Italy, actually. I am here to do some stories on […]

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This is something you notice during the World Cup, too. Especially if you live where the games are shown at night, and become regular viewing. The First Day with No Games.

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I’ve seen a lot of soccer, over the past 25 years. From AYSO to the World Cup. Hundreds of matches. Maybe a thousand. But I still do not know this game in the way that someone who grew up playing and watching it does. I don’t know soccer like I do baseball, basketball, (American) football, […]

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